- Gregory Soman

LOS ANGELES A new Sony campaign for its high-definition products broke last night with a 60-second commercial showcasing everything from Blu-Ray disc players to HDTVs and laptops tumbling from a mountaintop.

The spot, filmed in HD, shows a movie production atop a snow-capped mountain gone awry. As a cameraman focuses on a climber approaching the peak, the CineAlta professional camera falls and shatters into Blu-ray disc players, setting off a sequence of events that has single products in the HD line smashing and reforming into others as they tumble down the mountain and ricochet off trees and buildings. The commercial ends with a shot of the new Organic LED XEL-1 TV on a countertop showing the movie from the beginning of the spot and the voiceover, "From the professional movie camera to the world's thinnest TV, all we know is in all we do."

The campaign, which includes print, outdoor and online ads, follows up last year's effort centering on the company's high-definition DNA as "HDNA." "Sony is the quintessential leader in HD technology," said William Gelner, ecd at 180.  "It's something people innately feel about Sony, but have never been able to articulate in shorthand. We've given Sony a platform that allows consumers the ability to understand the promise of HDNA."

A 90-second version of the introductory spot, which was directed by Andrew Douglas of Anonymous Content, will break in movie theaters on Friday.

"Last year, we were getting the visual and verbal message out there," added Gelner. "This year it is about creating bigger, more engaging and more impactful communications."

Sony spent $155 million advertising in the U.S. last year (excluding online), up from $120 million in 2006, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.